Sipping beer and listening to a guitarist at an event for retirees in western Tokyo, Sadao Sekine said he backs government plans to cut the nation's ballooning debt — as long as he can keep his benefits.
"It's hard. I've had two serious illnesses," the 75-year-old former trading company employee said, pointing to his heart and his abdomen. "The Japanese medical insurance system is very advanced, and I'm grateful for that."
Sekine and the dozen or so gray-haired groovers at the Senior Salon event are part of Japan's growing band of pensioners — more than a quarter of the population is 65 or over. With a shrinking birthrate, the proportion is projected to top 30 percent within a decade, causing a surge in welfare spending in the world's most-indebted nation.